No, not the musical numbers that are spliced into "Laughing Room Only," your new revue that opened Wednesday at Broadway's Brooks Atkinson Theatre, but rather the jokes that make up the comedy sections of this overly familiar evening.

After six one-man shows on Broadway, Mason knows his audience very well, and they know him. These folks savor his classic routines — and still laugh uproariously. Mason's perennial riffs are all present: the difference between Jews and Gentiles, his diatribes against designer coffee, a smattering of political jokes (there are a few new ones about weapons of mass destruction) and various politically incorrect comments on foreigners, especially the French and Indian taxicab drivers who always end up taking their passengers to Newark Airport, no matter where they want to go.

December 11, 2003 - New York, NY - Barefoot and wearing silk kimonos held tightly in place with corset-like sashes, Ms. Tickle, Lady Ace and Bunny Love tiptoe across the stage twirling paper umbrellas like giant flowers, or, as indicated by the title of their routine-cherry blossoms. As dramatic "punchlines" progress, the kimonos fall away with scalpel precision, revealing the requisite pretty underthings. The plot thickens.

...

In the past few years, vaudeville and burlesque gone through quite a revival, with fairly large scenes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. It seems that the popularity of all things retro shows no signs of waning, though mining the past for artistic inspiration has become something of a cliche.

his year, excitingly, saw the Melbourne cabaret industry thoroughly shaken as its three major venues - Capers Cabaret, the Butterfly Club and Chapel Off Chapel - underwent massive restructuring.

Capers and the Butterfly Club came within a hair's breadth of closing down when their proprietors (Paul Baden and Patrick Smyth of Capers, Matthew Grant of the Butterfly Club) decided to move on to new challenges.

Both venues boasted strong followings and were saved at the last minute by consortiums of enthusiasts who refused to let the venues die.

All the world's a stage for the World Famous Pontani Sisters of Trenton, N.J.

The campy dance trio is part of a burlesque revival that began in New York about a decade ago and has turned into a bona fide boom. There are burlesque shows in New York on almost any given night, at places with names like the Slipper Room and Kate Valentine's Va Va Voom Room.

By LINDA EISENSTEIN Special to The Cleveland Plain Dealer February 11, 2004

"Personals" comes by its sitcom sensibility honestly. A loose collection of cabaret sketches and songs, it was penned by a group of college friends, including David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who later became famous as the creators of the megahit TV show "Friends."

It's been seven years since the fizzy Yinglish musical revue Meet Me at the Pitkin first jumped out of Gary Waldman's trunk with such willingness to please that we had to admit "triteness becomes a virtue."

Underneath the retro schtick of She-Males from Outer Space, an initially promising two-act dance and comedy play included in the 2004 Mardi Gras Festival, lies a script lacking substance.

She-Males from Outer Space is highly polished but ultimately bland. This is a pity. The six characters in Creative In Company's production display a good cartoon-like physicality and their natty costumes hint at great potential. But

omedy is seldom thought of as art. But "Keigwin Kabaret" might change a few minds. In its latest presentation, in an hourlong program on Friday night at the welcoming little Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, Larry Keigwin's "kabaret" was a model of well-made dance that was as surprisingly poignant as it was hilarious.

They soon find out. In New York, and other US cities, burlesque is back. The riotous form of musical striptease is sweeping nightspots, becoming the latest trend in entertainment. The craze is dubbed 'New Burlesque', but the ample flesh on display is just the same.

Yes indeedy folks, burlesque is back big time. With a nod, a wink and a twirl of saucy tassels, the mood and modes of 1920s Berlin decadence are being revisited by a new generation who mix playful eroticism with performance art to serve up entertaining cabaret with a hint of underground culture.

Paris Can Can, a two-hour spectacular with 30 ravishing dancers and scores of extravagant costumes, is doing for the traditional knees-up of latter-day Montmartre prostitutes what Riverdance did for old Irish dancing, says its creator Patrice Marques.

Over 30 performers presented a wide range of performances, with Can Can being the main theme. The dancers are also ballet dancers, gymnasts and acrobats. In extravagant, vibrant costumes, complete with garters, fishnets and frilly knickers, they present Can Can routines during the evening, each one at least eight minutes long.

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